volatile

mix.

World News from the BBC

President Obama has urged Wall Street bankers in New York to support his proposals for tighter regulation of the country's financial markets which he said was the only way to

avert

economic turmoil in the future. Mr Obama said that he was a firm believer in the free market and a strong financial sector. However, he said stricter rules were needed to protect taxpayers from having to fund multi-billion-dollar bail-outs of the major banks.

"

Our system only works, our markets are only free when there are basic safeguards that prevent abuse, that check excesses, that ensure that it is more profitable to play by the rules than to game the system.

That is what the reforms we’ve been proposing are designed to achieve."

The Olympic and world men's 400m champion LaShawn Merritt says that he has accepted a

provisional

suspension after failing a doping test.

His lawyer Howard Jacobs said the positive test had been caused by Mr Merritt's use of an over-the-counter male enhancement drug which contained the banned steroid DHEA.

Mr Merritt has apologized to his family and sponsors for having acted in a foolish, immature and egotistical manner.

Rwanda's main opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza has been released on bail after being arrested on charges of associating with a terrorist group and denying the 1994 genocide in her country. The court in the capital Kigali imposed strict bail conditions. Ms Ingabire, who was to have stood against President Paul Kagame in August's election, says that she has faced political harassment since returning to Rwanda from exile in January.